Szechuan eggplant with pork and hot bean sauce

My friend Chantal and I were feeling pretty relaxed and rejuvenated after our acupuncture sessions recently.   We left with instructions to refrain from touching our right ears for a couple of hours.   Do you know that your ears alone have dozens of reflex points that address a myriad of ailments including hypertension, nervous disorders and inflammation?   The bursa in my shoulder felt great after being stimulated by a dozen or so tiny needles and we decided on a casual lunch in nearby Chinatown.  

Le Lai Restaurant is situated in the old Dynasty Plaza shopping mall on Bellaire.   One of the original Chinese malls built long before the massive expansion of Chinatown in west Houston, Dynasty Plaza is now in desperate need of a facelift inside and out.   For now, it seems to be holding its own against umpteen spiffy malls nearby, thanks to an old and loyal clientele.

In Le Lai Restaurant, we noticed that were were the only Caucasians present – not an unusual sight considering the size of Houston’s Chinese community.   It is also a great indicator that were about to enjoy an authentic Chinese meal!   A large menu foreign to us both was posted at the counter but our table menus provided us with translations.   Service was terse and brisk and our order of whole fried fish and Szechwan eggplant was delicious.   At $4.50 per lunch plate, our bill came to $9.89 including tax.  To our surprise Chantal’s iced tea, my jasmine tea and two bowls of soup were included for free - quite a bargain!   We were quite satisfied until… 

An Oriental woman walked towards the exit, paused beside our table and smiled at us.  We were somewhat surprised to be acknowledged by this little old lady.   Before she disappeared through the door she gibed sarcastically,  “Cheaper than McDonald’s, eh?” 

Her question took several stunned seconds to digest.   We looked at each other in dismay and sheer disbelief.    We were obviously the result of a common stereotype that all Americans eat at McDonald’s.    We have never taken to fast food since we both grew up in foreign lands and are accomplished cooks.   Much of our friendship revolves around dining on gourmet food and wine, cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.   Heck, our meals and desserts are all made from scratch; my husband and I tend a vegetable garden every year; and for the Chinese lady’s information I make pasta, filo dough for strudel and even her native homeland’s dumplings from scratch!

Stereotypes about the eating habits of groups of people are unfortunate but very prevalent.   We all have them in varying degrees.   Had the old Chinese lady kept hers to herself she would not have shown herself to be ignorant and rude and we would have ended our meal on a more positive note. 

Bad vibes aside, here’s a recipe Chantal shared with me that she learned from Dorothy Huang, a local cooking instructor and author.   It’s important to have all of the ingredients ready before you start to cook as tender Japanese eggplant cooks quickly.   Here it is coated in a rich sweet and spicy brown sauce.

Szechwan Eggplant with pork and hot bean sauce

adapted from Dorothy Huang’s Chinese Cooking

Serves 2

Seasoning sauce:

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons chicken stock

2 tablespoons hot bean sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix all of the ingredients listed for the seasoning sauce in a small bowl.  

 

Have all of the following ingredients ready before cooking:

1½ pounds Japanese eggplant (the long, slender kind with thin skins)

3 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon minced ginger root

2 teaspoons minced garlic

¼ pound lean ground pork

salt, to taste

½ cup chicken broth

2 green onions, chopped

Rinse the eggplant.  If they are small, the peel will be tender and you do not have to peel them; if they are large with a tough skin, peel them first.  Cut eggplant into 1/2 inch chunks.

Heat oil in a wok over high heat.  Add ginger root, garlic and ground pork; stir for 1 minute.

Add eggplant and salt, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Add chicken broth, turn heat to medium, cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or more.

Add seasoning sauce and chopped green onions; stir until thickened and serve with steamed rice.

Prijatno!

Bobotie

“What’s that buzzing sound?”,  we asked each other within the first few minutes of the first football (soccer) match in World Cup action last month.  Not to be outdone by any other nation in WC history, the spirit of native South Africa rang through vuvuzelas – the long plastic instrument evocative of kudu horns used by tribal leaders to announce meetings.  The unmistakable droning sound led me to believe that a plague was imminent and the stadium was about to be attacked by a swarm of bees!   

Congratulations to the country of my childhood for setting the standard for other African nations.   The South African team of Bafana Bafana (“the boys” in Zulu) captivated the world by showing that they can compete on the world stage.  Troubling issues in the shadows of the state-of-the-art stadiums temporarily took a back seat as the world watched the biggest event in sporting history unfold for an entire month.   Who can forget Landon Donovan’s winning goal against Algeria, the drama behind Ghana’s painful loss to Uruguay in penalty kicks, and Puyol’s header that took Spain to the finals?

Sadly off-the-scale ticket prices made it impossible for many locals to attend.  Horrendous refereeing – particularly during USA vs. Slovenia - and the unpredictable Jabulani ball revealed the pros and cons of technology.  An extraordinary octopus named Paul predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s games and in the end favored team Spain walked off with the gold-plated trophy.

It was an interesting month for me because I had a connection to several participating countries:  Serbia because it is my birthplace;  USA because I am now a proud citizen; and South Africa because it provided my immigrant parents the freedom to succeed and therefore offered us kids a wonderful childhood.  I spent 16 of my formative years in South Africa, oblivious of the racial tension that would erupt after our emigration.  

My beautiful mother, Emilija with me (in the back) and my brother and sister, Božidar and Vesna on Durban beach

Because we rarely ‘ate out’ back then, we experienced new foods during family trips.  During our holidays in Durban, we stayed at the Killarney Hotel where there was a curry dish on the menu every day.  We fell in love with Indian food and were mesmerized by the brilliant spices at the Victoria Street Market.  We also enjoyed Bobotie, a definitive South African dish which is believed to have originated with the Cape Malay slaves.  Settlers, beginning with the Portuguese and followed by the Dutch, French, English and Indians, brought spices from their homelands and incorporated them into the local fare.  The Dutch East India Company managed trade between Europe and the Far East and brought many slaves to the Cape Province from Malaysia and Indonesia.  The addition of sweet components to meat dishes is common with the Malay.  In Bobotie (hear bobotie pronounciation) the egg custard sets the spicy, sweet meat, crunchy almonds and plump golden raisins.  It is typically finished with fresh sliced banana, grated coconut and eaten with chutney and yellow rice (plain basmati below). 

Bobotie adapted from African Cooking by Laurens van der Post

Serves 6

1 slice wheat bread, broken into small pieces

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 pounds coarsely ground lamb, beef or a combination of both

1½ cups finely chopped onions

2 tablespoons curry powder

1/2 - 1 teaspoon spicy masala (I used a home made masala brought to me from India by a friend)

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 eggs

1 medium-sized tart apple, peeled, cored and finely grated

½ cup golden raisins

¼ cup almonds, coarsely chopped

4 small fresh lemon, orange, or bay leaves

To finish:  grated coconut, freshly sliced banana, chutney and basmati rice

Preheat the oven to 300º F.  Combine the bread and milk in a small bowl and let the bread soak for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a heavy 10- to 12-inch saucepan, melt the butter over moderate heat. When hot, add the ground meat and cook it, stirring constantly while breaking the meat up until the meat is completely cooked.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat into a deep bowl.

Discard all but about 2 tablespoons of fat from the saucepan and add the onions.  Stirring frequently, cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent but not brown.   Add the curry powder, masala, sugar, salt and pepper, and stir for 1 or 2 minutes. Then stir in the lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Pour the entire mixture on the meat.

Using your hands, squeeze the bread until the milk runs dry.  Reserve the drained milk.  Add the bread, 1 of the eggs, the apple, raisins, and almonds to the meat mixture.  Mix with both hands until the ingredients are well combined.  Taste for seasoning and add more salt, curry or masala if desired.   Transfer the meat mixture loosely into a 3-quart oven-proof dish and smooth the top with a spatula. Tuck the lemon, orange or bay leaves beneath the surface of the meat.

With a wire whisk or rotary beater, beat the remaining 2 eggs with the reserved milk for about 1 minute or until they are frothy.  Slowly pour the mixture over the meat.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the custard is set and the top is light golden brown.

Lemon leaves are tucked into the meat and the custard is poured over the mixture and baked  

   Serve hot with yellow rice, fresh banana slices, grated coconut and chutney of your choice

Prijatno!

Sarma (cabbage rolls)

If you are of Eastern European heritage, one of your favorite winter meals is bound to be sarma.   Sarma varies from region to region and family to family, but the basic ingredients are meat wrapped in fermented cabbage leaves and flavored with smoked pork.  It is made with ingredients taken from the food that was prepared for the long cold winters – known as zimnica  in Serbia.  It has become the comfort food my family longs for at the beginning of winter.  It is the comfort food that my extended family and friends share at our Orthodox Christmas and other gatherings.
Kiseli kupus (sauerkraut) is the key to authentic sarma and can be easily made at home.   Even during our milder Texas winters, my father has had much success with the process.   People have been fermenting cabbage leaves since ancient times.  In remote villages it was a way to preserve food during the cold winter months when fresh vegetables were not readily available.   For my parents, homemade kiseli kupus is superior to the store-bought product and it’s the only sauerkraut they use for their sarma.  It’s a wonderful sight to see the pride in my father’s face when he offers his sauerkraut and smoked pork ribs and neck for sarma. 
My college-age kids requested sarma at the same time a local food critic asked me for the recipe.  My mother follows no written recipe, only the knowledge that it is best made with fermented cabbage leaves, lean meat with a little bit of rice, a generous amount of freshly ground pepper and sweet paprika, and smoked pork to add a depth of flavor to the clear broth.  Tomatoes are not part of mama’s sarma as she believes the acidity in the tomatoes would mask the distinctive flavors of the sauerkraut and smoked pork.  
We spent a wonderful morning together, mama and me.   We cooked and I measured each ingredient as we progressed, and when the sarma was ready, it was packaged and ready to be delivered to my kids who love their Serbian heritage and sarma!

First, you get your human pepper grinder to work.  You need lots of freshly ground black pepper.  Here is our sauerkrautier and meat smoker par excellence - my dad!

Smoked pork neck (left) goes in the filling, and the ribs flavor the sauce.  It’s important to have ample amounts of Turkish coffee on hand when making sarma:

Smoked pork ribs flavor the sarma and broth.  When these cook for 3-4 hours, the meat is very tender and falls off the bone.  You can trim the thick skin if you wish, but remember that a lot of flavor is in the fat.

Fermented cabbage leaves, rinsed and draining:

  

To roll each sarma, cup the leaf in the palm of your hand.  Fill with about 3 tablespoons of the meat mixture:

Fold one side over without straightening the ends:

Then the opposite side, but don’t straighten it at the end: 

 Fold the thick end over and roll:

Keep on rolling!

When you get to the end, tuck the ends into the sides created by rolling.  This way, the sarma won’t unravel as easily.

 Stack them as you go, the largest ones in one pile, medium in another, and small in a third pile: 

In your biggest soup pot, cover the bottom with a layer of the leaf rejects.  Arrange the largest sarme (plural) in a snug fashion:

When you’ve reached the top, nestle in about 6 smoked ribs:

Fill the pot with water but don’t cover the top layer.  Sprinkle with lots of paprika.

Cover the top layer of sarme with more of the leaf rejects.  Cover with the lid and simmer for 3-4 hours. 

Sarma
Makes 78 sarme (plural) 

3 large onions, finely diced
canola or olive oil
6 oz smoked pork, diced. Pork neck is the best – see picture of the smoked meat.
5 lbs ground beef (about 92% lean)
2 tablespoons salt
1½ cups long grain rice
½ cup ‘sweet’ ground paprika, plus more for sprinkling the top
3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
78 fermented cabbage leaves (recipe below, or you can purchase them at your local imported goods store)
About 6 smoked pork ribs

Please note a slight change in the method below (changes in bold). We no longer sauté the meat beforehand, only the onions. 

On medium heat, sauté diced onions in a little canola or olive oil until they are soft and starting to turn brown. Remove from heat and add diced pork and stir briefly. Increase heat to high setting and Add ground beef. Brown quickly to retain the juices. Add salt, rice, paprika and pepper and combine well.
Rinse excess salt off cabbage leaves and allow to drain in a colander. Separate the smaller, broken leaves and set them aside. For the larger leaves: trim the thick middle vein with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors without cutting through the leaf. They will be easier to roll that way.
For each cabbage leaf: fill with about 3 tablespoons of meat mixture. Roll in the palm of your hand by following the photos above, or place each cabbage leaf on a cutting board, and then fill and roll with both hands. Stack sarme on the side until all are rolled.
Drizzle a little oil on the bottom of a large stock pot with a wide base. Using the small, broken cabbage leaves, line the bottom of the pot with a single layer. Arrange sarme seam end up and close together on top of the cabbage leaves. With the seam end up, the sarme will stay intact when you scoop it out underneath it with a spoon when you are ready to serve them. Continue layering sarme until they are all in the pot.
Nestle the ribs in the top layer and fill the pot with water almost to cover the top sarme. Sprinkle generously with more paprika and cover sarme with leftover cabbage leaves.
Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 3-4 hours. 
To serve:  Carefully spoon 2 – 3 sarme per person, and rib meat into a bowl.  Ladle some of the broth into bowl.  Serve with warm crusty bread.

Kiseli kupus (sauerkraut)
To make sauerkraut, start with heads of cabbages that have the greenest outer leaves. Wash and remove the damaged leaves and discard. Core the cabbages (the core is delicious eaten raw). Stuff the hole with plenty of salt, pushing it in as tightly as you can. The salt will act as a preservative and prevent decay.
Place the cabbages in a barrel or plastic container large enough to fit them. My parents use a garbage can especially for this. Fill the barrel with water and a very generous amount of salt. You will be rinsing the cabbage leaves off later, so don’t be shy about adding plenty of salt.
Cover the cabbages with a large pan or plate and weight it down with a rock. Place lid on container. Place in the coolest part of the house or garage.
EVERY DAY for 3 weeks, the cabbages must be turned and shuffled in the container. This will prevent spoilage and keep the salt evenly dispersed. The sauerkraut will be ready in 3 weeks for sarma.

Prijatno!

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

As I write, my house if filled with the wonderful aroma of sofregit, a Catalan word for a sauté of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions.  This version has red peppers and mushrooms added ….so fragrant!   Known as soffritto in the rest of Spain, sofrito in Italy, and bećar paprikaš in my homeland, Serbia, it is the flavoring component of the rice dish that is our Daring Cooks’ challenge for this month.  

Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is our host for August.  She has chosen a delicious Spanish recipe by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.  He trained under well-known Ferran Adria at his three star Michelin restaurant El Bulli.  José Andrés now lives in Washington DC and owns several restaurants in the DC area.  The recipe is from his US TV show Made in Spain.

This delicious rice dish includes cuttlefish, artichokes and a few precious threads of azafran, or saffron.  The word is derived from the Arabic asfar meaning ‘yellow’ for the vivid yellow-orange color it imparts to food and fabric.  Saffron is a collection of the stigmas and styles of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) flower.  One of the finest growing regions is La Mancha in Spain.  Painstaking to harvest, it is the most expensive spice by weight.  Fortunately, a few threads is all you need to season the entire dish.  In fact, too much saffron can be toxic. 

My well-travelled son spent a month in Spain this summer and gifted me with a small container of saffron - a wonderful gift for any cook! 

A key element in this dish is an Allioli ‘mayonnaise’.  It is critical to the final flavor of the rice.  And let me warn you…a little goes a looong way.   It is spicy and pungent and suits our Serbian sensibility – you can never have too much garlic!  Making the sofregit and allioli ahead of time will allow you to put the dish together quickly.

Olé Allioli!

Allioli   (I chose to make the ‘traditional’ version.  For the ‘modern’ recipe, please go to Olga’s site)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.

4 cloves garlic, peeled

Pinch of salt

Fresh lemon juice (a few drops)

Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.

Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)

Add the lemon juice to the garlic.  Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.

Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.

Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all!  I pressed the garlic through a garlic press which sped up the process.  I had a smooth allioli with a definite ‘bite’ to it.

Ingredients for the sofregit:

Sofregit  Cooking time: about 1-1 1/2 hours.   (My changes are in blue)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped

2 small onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped (optional)  I used 1 red pepper and 1 red jalapeno pepper

4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional) I used a combination of button and cremini mushrooms

1 bay leaf (fresh from my garden)

Salt

a pinch of ground cumin

a pinch of dried oregano 1 fresh sprig

Put all the ingredients together in a pot and sauté slowly until all the vegetables are soft.  Taste and add salt if necessary.   You will not use all of the sofregit for this rice dish.  Here are just a few delicious ideas on how you can use the rest of it:  as a filling for omelets, on toast, on top of grilled fish,  in soups or with polenta. 

The sofregit after cooking for about 1 1/2 hours:

 Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes  Serves 4

2 cuttlefish   I couldn’t find cuttlefish in my part of the woods so I substituted calamari

4 artichoke hearts, each cut into eighths  I used frozen artichoke hearts but you can use canned or fresh

12 mushrooms, quartered  I used a combination of button and cremini

2 bay leaves

1 cup white wine

the sofregit

2 cups (300g) short grain rice such as Arborio, Calasparra or Montsant

about 6 cups of water or fish stock

a few saffron threads (you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, if necessary)

the allioli

Cut the cuttlefish or calamari into thin strips. 

Heat 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan pan on high heat and add the cuttlefish/calamari in the pan.

Add the artichokes, mushrooms and bay leaves.   Sauté until the artichokes are golden.

Add a little white wine to the saucepan and about 3 spoons (I added at least 1/2 cup) of the sofregit and make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.

Add the rest of the wine and the stock and bring it to boil.   Add the rice and let it cook for about 5 minutes on high heat.

Add a few saffron threads (or the turmeric) to enrich the dish with its flavor and color.  Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor.  Turn heat to low and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”).

Take the away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.  Serve each portion with a small dollop of allioli.

Once I had all the ingredients ready, this dish came together very quickly.  We shared it with my sister’s family and it was well liked by all.  I added a pound of large shrimp (20 count) for the final 8 minutes of cooking time because I felt that there wasn’t enough ‘meat’ to go around – there were 3 teenagers at the table, two of them over 6 feet tall! 

 For more information and instructional videos, please go to Olga’s site.  Thanks Olga for a great challenge, and two thumbs up to our founders Lis and Yvonne. 

Prijatno!